Mom’s Easy Honey Garlic Chicken

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My mother-in-law has the best recipe for honey garlic chicken. This is not the honey garlic chicken that is little bits and pieces and you serve over rice, this recipe uses full pieces of chicken, can be chicken thigh or chicken breast and cooks up in a skillet so fast and easy it will soon become you new favourite!

Honey Garlic Chicken

How to Make Easy Honey Garlic Chicken

Honey garlic chicken doesn’t get easier than this!

Whisk together all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken as well. Reserve some of the sauce for later.

Place chicken into the sauce and cover. Marinate.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Pre-heat an oven safe skillet with olive oil in it.

Fry the chicken until the skin started to crisp up.

Pour the remaining sauce on top of the chicken. Place the skillet into the oven and bake until the thighs reach an internal temperature of 185 degrees F.

I was lazing around one Sunday and had a message pop up from a reader that asked me for a really good honey garlic chicken recipe. I scratched my head a bit and realized that I don’t actually make honey garlic chicken on a regular basis. Yes, I make my Uncle Bob’s Japanese Chicken Wings, but I don’t make honey garlic chicken.

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And presto, I was craving honey garlic chicken yesterday, just like that. I became a wee bit obsessed with the thought of honey garlic chicken for dinner and mentioned it to Mike as I was taking chicken thighs out of the freezer that someone had asked me if I knew a honey garlic chicken recipe and now I was CRAVING IT.

He looked up from his laptop and excitedly said ” Oh man, my mom has the BEST honey garlic chicken recipe ever! Let me ask her for it!” Now listen, Mr Magpie doesn’t really get excited about food like that, so I was totally game. Don’t tell him this, but he was right. This is seriously the best honey garlic chicken recipe ever.

Honey Garlic Sauce Ingredients

The reason that this is THE BEST honey garlic chicken recipe is the sauce, of course! Mike’s Mom puts in some easy and amazing ingredients but not necessarily authentic.The ketchup of course isn’t authentic but let me tell you, ALL other sauces pale in comparison to this recipe, trust me!

skin on chicken thighs or breasts

soy sauce

liquid honey

ketchup

powdered ginger

garlic powder

Honey Garlic Chicken Tips and Tricks

You can use chicken thighs or chicken breasts and I highly recommend using skin on for the best honey garlic chicken. The skin becomes crispy, sticky and utterly delicious when cooked!

Cook the chicken thighs to 185 °F for the best texture. While you can cook it to 165 °F for safety sake, you actually want to cook thigh meat to a higher temperature to break down the meat better. It is tough meat at 165 ° and like butter when you reach 185 °F. This is a trick I learned from some chef friends and it will make you a chicken thigh addict!

Cook the chicken breast to 165 °F and no more.

The sauce is beyond amazing, make sure to reserve some sauce before you marinade the chicken, I like to use fresh sauce later on and not the marinade.

More Chicken Recipes For You To Try

This Sweet Honey Curry Chicken is a reader favourite- and a surprise hit with most people!

This honey garlic chicken is ooey and gooey and sweet and garlicky and I was sad that I only made 6 chicken thighs! Karlynn, you fool! What were you thinking?

You can make as much sauce as you want with it – we reserved 1/2 cup to the side to add onto the chicken later after you crisp it in the pan – and just pour that all over rice after the chicken is cooked, it make a great sauce.. Not only that, this recipe is so easy – the sauce is only 5 ingredients! It’s crazy easy!

I’m Karlynn Johnston, Welcome to my Blog!

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian Prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!